MOSCOW: December 19, 2011Patriarchal Congratulations to Archbishop Alypy of Chicago

To His Eminence Archbishop Alypy of Chicago and Mid-America, Your Eminence:

I send my heartfelt congratulations to you on your 85th birthday. You life has been full of tribulations and difficulties, but the Merciful Savior has kept and preserved you. Having elected to serve “the Lord, holy and true” (Revelations 6:10), you were tonsured into monasticism. You performed many obediences, you have proven yourself an earnest and zealous laborer in the harvest fields of God. By the will of the Almighty and by decision of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, you were called upon to become a successor of the Apostles and a bearer of their labors in the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, and later in the Diocese of Chicago and Detroit.

Your filial devotion to the Church of Christ and your paternal care for your flock have earned profound respect among the clergy and earnest love from your flock. It brings me joy that you, while seeking to edify the people of God “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), that in them “the faith groweth… and charity abound” (2 Thessalonians 1:3), you also devote time to the adornment of churches.

In recognition of your earnest labors and in honor of your 85th birthday, I deem it proper to award you the Order of St Sergius of Radonezh of the 2nd Order.

On this significant jubilee, I prayerfully wish you good health, spiritual peace and the bountiful aid of God in your important archpastoral service. May the Omnipotent Lord preserve you in strength for many years.